Questions to Consider

1. Thinking about world history or current events, do you think anything is wrong with the world? What are the indicators, or symptoms, to you?

2. What do you think the root cause is? Why are things the way they are?

3. What do you think would fix it?

4. Are you part of the problem? How? If not, why not?

5. Do you believe that the Bible credibly answers these questions?

The problem

When I was going to college, I was asked the first question by a hitchhiker that I had picked up on my way home from school. I thought about it for a while. I wasn't suffering. I was healthy. I partied with my friends every weekend. Life was pretty fun for me. Life was good. For some reason I had never thought about what might be "wrong with the world". I said to the guy, "I don't know, what do you think?"  

To that, he asked me if I had read a newspaper lately, or if I had ever taken a history class and if I hadn't noticed that the world has always been filled with war and suffering. He asked me why everyone locks their doors at night and why prisons are so numerous and full. He asked, "Why do we have fences around our yards? Why has there always been war and strife?". I must have been oblivious because I had never thought about these things before. But at that moment, the problems became strikingly real to me and, for the first time, I realized that the world is a pretty messed up place.

After I admitted that the world seemed pretty messed up, he asked me the second question above; why did I think things were the way they were?  I thought about it for a minute before telling him that I didn't have any idea and asked him what he thought. He said that he thought the root problem was that, in general, people care more about themselves than they do their fellow humans. He said that he believed that if each individual in the world cared as much for his fellow humans as he did for himself, that none of the problems we had been talking about would even exist.

Maybe you're like I was and hardly notice that anything is wrong with the world. Maybe part of the reason some of us hardly notice is that this experience of life is all we know. The way things are seems "normal", but if you think about it, doesn't it seem like the world is a very messed up place?

These words of Jesus that have widespread appeal and have often been quoted say  "love your neighbor as yourself". Most people agree that everyone should put those words into practice. Why then is there such a contrast between what we agree about and what we experience? Why does self-centeredness and selfishness seem to be our default condition? Why do our personal interests seem to so naturally take precedence over the interests of others? 

Some answers people might give

The system

Many think that the root of our problem is  "The System". They think that if we can change the system we can fix the problem(s), so they work on the problem(s) from this angle. Some think it's the educational system. For others, it's the political system.  Communism, as an example, envisions a Utopian system that will eventually sustain itself as everyone works for the common good. Humankind has been changing "the system" for all of recorded history, often violently. But no matter how many times "the system" has been changed, the problem persists. 

Religion

Others think that people must modify themselves in some way through sheer will power.  "Do this", "don't do that".  The religious answer is often one that requires people to subjugate their natural tendencies by the exercise of their will. There are examples of this expressed in most religious literature. One is found in the following article: 

"Monks undertake 500-mile journey on their knees"

"Masters Zhiyuan and Hanliang will spend two months crawling to 99 temples on their way to the Putuo Mountains in eastern China until they reach a statue of Guanyin, the Buddhist goddess of mercy. Each night the pious pair will sleep under the stars in sleeping bags without even a tent to cover them, say helpers from their home temple in Ganlu, southern China. 'They will crawl and then every third step they will stop and bow as a sign of respect to the goddess,' explained one."

( http://metro.co.uk/2010/10/19/monks-undertake-500-mile-journey-on-their-knees-552157/ )

Many, like these monks, think the problem would be solved if everyone would just follow their example.

The Bible's Answer

If we were not self-centered but, rather, generally motivated by a love for our fellow humans, wouldn't any system work? Conversely, if we are motivated by self-centeredness, then won't any system eventually fail? Could it be that failure isn't inherent in the system; but rather, inherent in the people within the system?

In the New Testament book of Galatians, the Apostle Paul writes about the human condition that we all share. It is a condition of self-centeredness that results in distrust, lying, discord, hatred, strife, envy, anger, gossip, selfishness, and separation among many other "symptoms"  (Galatians 5:19-20). The history of the world is a long display of the result of this human condition.  

But the question remains, why? Why are we naturally self-centered? Why aren't we naturally motivated by love? 

We've considered the behavioral signs and symptoms of the problem, but the Bible claims that the problem is rooted in something deeper than behavior. It claims that people "walk in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them" and that this is "because of the hardness of their heart" (Ephesians 4: 17-19).   

Regarding our condition, the Bible claims that all people are sinful, that "there are none righteous, not even one". (Romans 3:10) It teaches that we miss the mark of having perfect love, which is God's standard. The meaning of the word, "sin" is, literally,  "to miss the mark" or "fall short". We all miss the mark and fall short of meeting God's standard of love.

The thread of man's fallen, broken condition can be found throughout the Bible and throughout history. 700 years before Jesus Christ walked the earth, a Jewish prophet named Isaiah wrote, "All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way..." (Isaiah 53:6)

The Bible claims that this problem exists for one reason, the universal alienation of humanity from God. We have all "gone astray". Each one of us has turned aside from God to our own way.  We have each abandoned God, and our lives are marked by self-centeredness instead of love as a result.

In the Bible, the human condition isn't described as simply a behavioral problem. And it doesn't claim that we are just dull or ignorant or not paying attention. It's deeper than that. It describes us as being "dead in our sins". According to the Bible, this condition is more than just a passive ignorance toward God. It includes an attitude of active hostility and rebellion.

To make things worse, in our spiritual deadness we are unable to even perceive our own condition. The Bible tells us that we are spiritually blind as a result of being spiritually dead! (Revelation 3:17-18).

I can remember my own thinking before I was a Christian. I saw Christians as gullible, simple-minded people who believed in this mythical book, the Bible. The Bible itself made absolutely no sense to me.

Now, looking back, I can see that the reason the Bible made no sense to me was that I was spiritually dead.

The cure

The Bible claims that without God's help our condition is as hopeless as the condition of a dead fruit tree. No amount of cultivating, fertilizing, or watering can do anything to change the condition of the tree. Trying to solve the problem by changing our behavior, whether by changing the system, self-improvement, or trying to follow religious rules, amounts to trying to fix the dead tree by tacking plastic fruit onto it. There is no hope in these efforts because the problem is deeper than behavior.

The good news is, there is a solution to this condition.

God is the Great Physician, and He has the "cure" for the "disease". The Bible claims that only God can accomplish what we have no hope of accomplishing. It says that our only hope is that God would perform a miracle in us because only God can bring a dead tree to life. And the good news is He's willing to do that! But how does He do it?  He does it by giving us spiritual life!

Christianity doesn't give us a list of rules that says "do this and don't do that and you might become acceptable to God". Christianity is, before anything else, about "dead" people being given the necessary and free gift of life. One amazing thing that the Bible teaches is that the life that the Christian receives when he or she trusts in Jesus for salvation is the life of God himself! Jesus said "I am the way, the truth, and the life". A new life begins when the Spirit of God enters into the heart of a person! This is what Jesus was referring to when He said that we all must be "born again". 

This new life is freely given to anyone who looks to and trusts Jesus for salvation. Many other things also happen. One of the first is that our eyes become opened to spiritual truth. We are able to see and understand that the Bible is God's Word. We are able to see ourselves and the human condition more clearly. We are able to see and embrace God's solution, which is rooted in Jesus' death and resurrection. As we learn to yield to God and trust in His enabling power we are able to grow into being the kind of loving people He created us to be. 

So, how does this happen to a person? Do we play any part in the process? The Bible tells us that we do have a part to play. Just as our rebellion is essentially our turning aside from God to go our own way, so our salvation involves our turning back to Him. Turning back is not a matter of us mending our ways. That would be a requirement that would be impossible to meet. It's a matter of our recognizing our hopeless, helpless condition and turning to him for what he has provided as the solution. In a passage that is, in part, very familiar to people who watch football on TV, Jesus said,

"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man (Jesus) be lifted up; so that whoever believes, will in him have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave His only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. He who believes in him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed..." 
(John chapter 3 verses 14-20)

That day in 1974 that I gave a hitchhiker a ride was the beginning of a journey for me. It started me on a search for truth and it took a few years before I found what I was looking for. I now know that it was not only that I found what I was looking for, but that what I was looking for found me, but that’s another story.

There is much more to say and discuss about these matters. There may be questions or objections that you have about Christianity. For example, many people think the Bible contains too many inconsistencies to be considered credible, or that it contradicts science (Evolutionary theory, for example). Yet, many eminent historians and scientists have critically examined these apparent inconsistencies or contradictions only to have become Christians themselves.

Questions about the Bible should be encouraged in the quest for truth. If this quest is something that you would be interested in, please call, text, or email me at the number or address below.

Bob Humphrey

925-699-2824

bob9354@sbcglobal.net